Palestinian activist and political prisoner Khader Adnan was released this morning, 12 July, following a 55-day hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial.
Adnan, 37, was arrested on 8 July 2014 as part of the mass arrests against Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem immediately prior to and during the Israeli aggression against Gaza, and had been held in administrative detention – without charge or trial -since that time. A father of six, Adnan is a baker and a political activist in his hometown of Arraba, near Jenin. He rose to national and international prominence in 2012, when he was similarly imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention and conducted a 66-day hunger strike that, like his 2015 strike, ensured his freedom, sparked numerous other hunger strikes among Palestinian political prisoners, and reinvigorated the movement to support and free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
He began his most recent strike on 6 May, following a renewed administrative detention order against him; in January, he had launched a one-week hunger strike warning that any additional renewals of his detention without charge or trial would spark an open-ended strike. During his strike, Adnan refrained from all nourishment except water and salt and was imprisoned, shackled to his bed, in Assaf Harofeh hospital.
His release came at dawn and had been kept a secret from his family; the Israeli occupation forces were attempting to prevent or silence the mass Palestinian welcome and celebration of Khader Adnan’s release, another strong defeat to the Israeli system of administrative detention. There are currently over 400 Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention; currently two administrative detainees, Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti, are on hunger strike for 25 and 24 days respectively, demanding their release from administrative detention. Dozens of other Palestinian administrative detainees, particularly those who support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or Islamic Jihad, are boycotting the military courts that issue administrative detention orders on the basis of secret evidence.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Khader Adnan and the Palestinian people on his repeated, historic victory over the Israeli occupier and its system of repression and incarceration that imprisons approximately 5,000 Palestinians. The struggle to end administrative detention and free all Palestinian prisoners is central to the struggle to free Palestine and the Palestinian people as a whole. Khader Adnan’s steadfastness and commitment represents the role of the Palestinian prisoners as the conscience of the liberation struggle, who cannot be broken by torture, isolation or imprisonment; his example makes clear, as the struggle of the Palestinian people has again and again, that the systems of imprisonment and oppression constructed by Israeli occupation and settler colonialism can in fact be defeated. His hunger strikes have strengthened international solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and engaged thousands around the world.
Congratulations and welcome to Khader Adnan, and we will work to see the day soon when every one of the thousands of Palestinians behind bars join you in freedom.
On 14 July 2015, on the occasion of the French National Day, the International Campaign to Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is organizing a reception in the Palais des Pins, in Beirut, with music, poetry and cultural presentations.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is a Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine who has been a political prisoner in French jails since 1984. The political involvement of the French and US governments have prevented his release on multiple occasions despite several approvals of parole. Demand freedom for Georges Abdallah!
1 July 2015, Occupied Ramallah – Addameer’s lawyers report today that more than 60 administrative detainees held in Ofer, Naqab and Megiddo prisons will boycott the Israeli Occupation’s military courts in protest of the administrative detention policy and the false trials they are subjected to.
There are currently 401 administrative detainees held in the occupation’s prisons, including six Palestinian Legislative Council members. They are held based on secret information neither they nor their lawyers can review.
Addameer expresses its full support and solidarity with the administrative detainees and their demands and refusal of the arbitrary administrative detention policy. Addameer believes that the systematic use of administrative detention by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) is a form of torture and a violation of the Geneva Convention IV Article (147), and is considered a crime against humanity according to Article (7) and a war crime according to Article (8) of Rome Statue.
Addameer demands that the occupying forces release all of the administrative detainees immediately and grant them their rights in accordance with international law. Addameer calls upon solidarity organizations, human rights organizations and individuals all around the world to join the campaign to end administrative detention while emphasizing the necessity of popular support for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The occupation forces holds false trials for the administrative detainees that lack the basic standards of fair trial. The trials’ procedures violate Article (66) of Geneva Convention IV which states that trials should be formed legally and should be held in the occupied territory, the trials also violate Article (71) which states that the private courts of the occupying power should not issue any sentence unless it was preceded by a legal trial.
The occupation forces also practice the administrative detention policy in violation of article (78) of Geneva Convention IV which states that administrative detention should not be implemented on people with immunity unless for imperative security reason and according to legal procedures defined by the occupying power and based on the fourth Geneva convention. The military courts deny administrative detainees from their right of fair trial and the basic guarantees stated in Article (75) of the first Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Administrative detention policy also violates articles (9), (10), and (14) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966. The International Committee on Arbitrary Detention considered administrative detention as a form of physiological torture.
Administrative detention is a policy practiced by the occupation forces to detain Palestinian civilians without a charge or trial while denying the detainee and his/her lawyer from knowing the reasons for detention or building an effective defense. Administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.
Currently, Palestinians in the West Bank are being held under administrative detention based on Military Order (1651) Article (285). Palestinians from Jerusalem are being held under administrative detention based on an order issued by the Israeli Defense Minister in accordance with Article (2) of the 1979 Emergency Law to maintain the “security of the state”, which allows the issuance of an administrative detention order for six months that can be renewed indefinitely. As for Palestinians from Gaza, they are being held under administrative detention based on Military Order (941) of 1988. Currently, the Illegal Combatants Law which was approved by the Knesset in March 2002 is used to hold Palestinians that live in Gaza under administrative detention indefinitely.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has been fighting against the policy of administrative detention for decades, which includes boycotting military courts and hunger strikes on the individual and collective levels. Between 2011 and 2015, dozens of administrative detainees launched an open hunger strike against the policy of administrative detention. On 26 April 2014, more than 130 administrative detainees endured a 62-day mass hunger strike which was followed by a series of punitive measures by the Israeli Prison Service, including exorbitant fines, denial of family visits and solitary confinement. On 18 May 2014, the Israeli Ministerial Committee also ratified a draft law to allow for the force-feeding of hunger strikers.
The IOF have issued more than 50,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since 1967, including 24,000 orders that were issued after the second Intifada. During the first Intifada in 1989, the number of administrative detainees reached more than 1,700 detainees.
UPDATE: On 2 July, Kevin Neish, Robert Lovelace and Herman Reksten were deported. Please keep up the action to free the remaining flotilla activists!
The Freedom Flotilla to Gaza and its boat the “Marianne of Gothenburg,” sailed by international activists seeking to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian people of Gaza through international solidarity, were violently attacked at sea by the Israeli navy on 29 June 2015. The sailors of the Marianne remained imprisoned in Givon prison near Ramon. Take action and demand their immediate release!
Video of the attack on the “Marianne”:
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition issued the following statement and call for solidarity. Inside Palestine, the Palestinian Prisoners Committee has launched a campaign and project to free the flotilla sailors:
It has been more than 50 hours since Israeli navy attacked the “Marianne” in international waters, 100nm from Gaza, during one of its usual acts of State piracy, always behaving as the bullying state of eastern Mediterranean. 18 participants on board were kidnapped and brought by force and against their will to the military Ashdod port. During the operation of seizure of the “Marianne”, which IDF called “uneventful”, Israeli soldiers used violence against participants on board.
Dr. Bassel Ghattas (Member of Knesset), Dr. Moncef Marzouki (ex-President of Tunisia), Ana Miranda (Member of European Parliament) and Ohad Hemo (Channel 2 journalist), were released and the rest were moved to Givon prison at Ramla area, where they remain hostages until this moment.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition stands with all sailors of the “Marianne” who are illegally kept in the Israeli prison. We demand that the State of Israel immediately releases them and also returns the “Marianne of Gothenberg”. We demand that our governments condemn violence of the State of Israel against peaceful citizens and stand by the rights of the Palestinian people.
The imprisoned flotilla sailors for freedom are: Nadya Kevorkova, Russia; Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sweden; Robert Lovelace, Canada (Indigenous leader); Joel Opperdoes, Sweden; Gustave Bergstrom, Sweden; Herman Reksten, Norway; Kevin Neish, Canada; Jonas Karlin, Sweden; Charlie Andreasson, Sweden; Dror Feiler, Sweden. There are reports that the Canadian and Norwegian citizens will be deported on Thursday; however all of the imprisoned sailors are demanding to be deported as a group, with no one left behind.
2.Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy against the attack on the flotilla, and to end the siege on Gaza. Bring posters and flyers about Gaza and the flotilla and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include this issue in your next event about Palestine and social justice.
3. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.
*Thank you for taking action! The Marianne sailors are now free – now it is time to continue the struggle to break the siege.
Letter Text:
I write today to demand the immediate release of the following sailors of the “Marianne,” the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, who were with their boat unlawfully and violently kidnapped from the seas by the Israeli navy in an act of state piracy as they sailed to bring their humanitarian message and support to the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza.
I demand the immediate release of the following international activists, held in Givon prison, and the immediate return of the boat, the “Marianne of Gothenburg”:
Nadya Kevorkova, Russia
Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Sweden
Joel Opperdoes, Sweden
Gustave Bergstrom, Sweden
Jonas Karlin, Sweden
Charlie Andreasson, Sweden
Dror Feiler, Sweden
The following statement was issued by the Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil, a mass social movement, formed by rural workers and by all those who want to fight for land reform and against injustice and social inequality in rural areas. With an estimated 1.5 million members, the movement has led more than 2,500 land occupations, with about 370,000 families – families that today settled on 7.5 million hectares of land that they won as a result of the occupations. Through their organizing, these families continue to push for schools, credit for agricultural production and cooperatives, and access to health care. The MST statement also focuses on the case of Islam Hamed, a Brazilian Palestinian citizen formerly imprisoned by Israel and today held in Palestinian Authority prisons and engaging in a hunger strike (Facebook page for the Free Islam Hamed campaign):
A Statement from the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) Free Ahmad Sa’adat, Khalida Jarrar, Islam Hamed and all political prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian Authority jails!
São Paulo, June 19th, 2015.
The Landless Rural Workers’ Movement – MST (Brazil), reaffirms its position of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their legitimate organizations in the struggle to free all political prisoners jailed for taking part in the national liberation movement against Israeli occupation. The struggle of the Palestinian People for national independence, sovereignty, self-determination and justice, is, today, internationally recognized as a cause of all the peoples, a cause of all humanity. To struggle against Israeli occupation in Palestine is not only an inalienable right of these heroic people, but also a right of all men and women that in any place on this planet are against this genocidal policy and ethnic cleansing imposed by successive Israeli governments since 1948.
Khalida Jarrar, feminist activist for human rights and Palestinian parliamentarian arrested on April 2nd 2015, is among the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners including 240 children. Many of them are suffering from serious diseases and have no access to any treatment, which, in effect, means being sentenced to death. Some of them are elderly people. There are also around 600 prisoners that go through a period of administrative detention without any legal justification or accusation, except for the use of a British military decree from the times of the British colonization in Palestine 70 years ago.
The case of Islam Hamed
We demand that the Brazilian government takes responsibility and returns this citizen safely to Brazil. The Brazilian-Palestinian Islam Hamed, 30 years old, is on hunger-strike for more than 60 days. He was in an Israeli prison and now he’s in a jail of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, occupied West Bank.
The MST joins the international movement in solidarity with this Palestinian prisoner in struggle for justice and freedom. We demand that the Brazilian government, responsible for the health and security of this Brazilian citizen, intensifies its efforts so that Islam can immediately return safely to Brazil to meet his family that has been waiting for him. The Brazilian government must act to fulfill this humanitarian objective: save the life of a Brazilian citizen unjustly imprisoned abroad.
Dilma’s government made efforts to defend the physical and moral integrity of many Brazilian citizens abroad, in very different situations from the one Islam Hamed finds himself, because this is a man in struggle for justice and for the compliance of UN Resolutions regarding the
Palestinian quest. It is a duty of the government to take on publicly the defence of this just cause.
Free Ahmad Sa’adat, Khalida Jarrar, Islam Hamed and all Palestinian prisoners!
Daoud al-Ghoul, 32, the director of youth programs for the Health Work Committees in Jerusalem and the Kanaan Network of Palestinian civil society organizations and a prominent community organizer, was arrested by Israeli occupation military forces on 25 June. Al-Ghoul has been subject to repeated attacks on his freedom and ability to move and live in his homeland, being issued an Israeli military order displacing him from Jerusalem, his home and the city of his birth, on 30 November 2014 followed by an order banning him from the West Bank a week later, and then an order banning him from travel abroad until October 2015.
Daoud al-Ghoul speaks in Brussels at Intal, 18 November
Al-Ghoul’s detention will be up for review and probable extension at the end of this week. No reasons for the detention have been made public, nor were any reasons ever given for the multiple bans on his movement and his forcible displacement from his home; all were done by arbitrary military order. The orders were renewed upon their expiration in April and June of this year. Al-Ghoul is a resident of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan; he was forced to live in Haifa following his expulsion from Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The attacks on Al-Ghoul began shortly after his return from Brussels, Belgium, where he presented on 17 November 2014 to the European Parliament on the increasing Israeli restrictions and infringements on the work of Palestinian health workers and organizations in Jerusalem, as well as the ongoing ethnic cleansing and threats to Palestinian existence in the city.
It appears that the targeting of Al-Ghoul came in retaliation for his exposure of the home demolitions, large-scale colony building, stripping of IDs and residency and ethnic cleansing to which Palestinians in Jerusalem are subjected by the Israeli military occupation. Al-Ghoul is an internationally renowned human rights defender who has also participated in the World Social Forum and in numerous international arenas to advocate for Palestinian rights and freedom.
The Jerusalem HWC office where Al-Ghoul works was forcibly closed by the Israeli military in May. The Health Work Committees (HWC) is a non-governmental health and development organization, established in 1985 to meet the health care needs of the Palestinian population living under occupation. Its Shuafat office in East Jerusalem housed the group’s school health prgramme, which since 1990 has provided medical exams, preventative screenings, health education and vaccinations to Palestinian students in more than 62 schools in Jerusalems.
The arrest of Al-Ghoul is another escalation of the attempts to silence this youth leader and human rights defender. Human rights defenders are defined by the United Nations as those who, individually or in association with others, work to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Al-Ghoul’s work clearly falls within this mandate, and his forcible displacement and arrest violates the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
At the time of his forcible displacement from Jerusalem, Al-Ghoul said “We are not afraid. We are fighting for our future and we have nothing to lose. We refuse this decision. It is our homeland. It is our basic right to live in our houses in Jerusalem. We must stop Israel and their racist policies of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and forced displacement in Jerusalem. I call on the international community to act.”
The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits individual or collective transfer of persons under occupation from one area of occupied territory to another. This forced expulsion comes following the stripping of Jerusalem ID’s of elected Palestinian Legislative Council members Mohammad Abu Tir, Ahmad Atoun, Mohammed Totah and Khaled Abu Arafah; as well as the stripping of the Jerusalem residency of Nadia Abu Jamal, the widow of Ghassan Abu Jamal.
Interview with Daoud Al-Ghoul:
The Health Work Committees condemned the arrest of al-Ghoul and “called on all local and international human rights organizations to act quickly in order to secure his immediate release.”
2. Call for the European Union to take action. The targeting of Al-Ghoul appears to be in retaliation for his testimony before the European Parliament. The EU cannot be silent on this case. Click here to call for action.
3. Demand an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Join over 300 civil society organizations and trade unions to demand “No Association with Occupation!”: http://freepalestine.eu/
4.Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy for Daoud Ghoul and Palestinian prisoners. Bring posters and flyers and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include Daoud’s case in your next event about Palestine and social justice.
5. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Learn more at bdsmovement.net.
Letter Text:
I write today to demand the immediate release of Daoud al-Ghoul, a Palestinian human rights defender from Silwan, East Jerusalem. I also demand the immediate lifting of the orders barring him from his hometown of Jerusalem, from the West Bank and from international travel.
Al-Ghoul is an internationally renowned human rights defender and youth leader who coordinates programs for the Health Work Committees in Jerusalem. It is clear that he was attacked for his advocacy for Palestinian rights in Jerusalem, expelled from his home only weeks after testifying before the European Parliament on the attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem.
I also demand an end to the policies that Al-Ghoul has exposed: the home demolitions, residence revocations, mass arrests, arbitrary detention, and large-scale colony building against Palestinians in Jerusalem, aimed at emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents and erasing its Palestinian character.
Al-Ghoul’s forcible displacement and arrest violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
I demand his immediate release and an end to the targeting of this Palestinian human rights defender.
Featuring a discussion with
Lara Kiswani Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Liz Jackson Palestine Legal
Nancy Hernandez Precita Eyes Mural Arts
Sara Kershnar International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
As the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movements build power on campuses and in communities across the U.S., we face increasing targeted attacks, including lawsuits, surveillance and criminalization. Who is funding these attacks on individuals and organizations standing up for justice and how can we respond in ways that strengthen our movements?
The Business of Backlash reveals that much of the funding behind this backlash stems from a small group of donors who fund a range of right-wing causes including Islamophobia, climate change denial, education privatization, and anti-labor legislation. The report also highlights cases where activists have turned the tables—leveraging their successful defense to advance movements for justice.
On 25 June, the municipal council in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium, approved the first municipal motion in Europe to prohibit the granting of public municipal contracts to corporations that are complicit in the occupation of Palestine, and all corporations flouting international law.
The measure was introduced by Dirk De Block of the Workers Party of Belgium and Jamal Ikazban of the Socialist Party, and was supported by sp.a (the Socialist Party of Anders), the GIC (Communal Interest Group) and Ecolo-Groen.
The measure was submitted after the discovery that G4S, the corporation subject to an international boycott campaign for its provision of security systems and hardware to Israeli prisons holding Palestinian political prisoners, had signed a contract with the municipality.
In October, an official rule will be promulgated for all public contracts issued by the munciipality in line with the motion. “A large majority of local councillors expressed their wish to not grant public tenders to corporations like G4S, who are directly involved in the occupation and colonization of Palestine,” said Ikazban.
Next month, a committee will be formed to create the official rule according to legal guidelines for public contracting. “After we discovered that G4S had signed a contract with the municipality we decided, with the PS, to file a motion to exclude this type of corporation,” said De Block. “We especially thank the peace and solidarity organizations that have worked for years on the case of G4S.”
Both Ikazban and De Block expressed their hopes that the decision of Molenbeek’s council, a first in Belgium and in the Brussels-Capital region will be replicated by other municipalities and at other levels of authority.
Khader Adnan, Palestinian political prisoner and long-term hunger striker, has achieved victory for the second time via hunger strike; in the early morning of 29 June, after 55 days of hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial, Adnan’s wife Randa announced that an agreement has been reached with his Israeli captors to release him on 12 July. She also stated that there is a commitment to end the use of administrative detention – under which Adnan has been held for over 6 years through multiple imprisonments – against Adnan.
Khader Adnan, 37, a baker from Jenin and a political activist, was also released from Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial in 2012 after a 67-day hunger strike that sparked widespread international and Palestinian support and helped to revitalize the broad movement for Palestinian prisoners’ freedom. Released on 17 April 2012, he was re-arrested on 8 July 2014 and had been held since then without charge or trial. He launched his hunger strike on 5 May to protest the renewal of his administrative detention and had reached a critical health stage.
Randa and Adnan’s children and parents visited Adnan in Assaf Harofeh hospital, where he is being held, chained hand and foot to his hospital bed, following the announcement of the agreement. (Photos via @MalakaMohammed on Twitter.)
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its warmest congratulations to Khader Adnan and his family, and to the Palestinian people. Khader Adnan is a true Palestinian – and international – hero of justice and steadfastness, who has put his body on the line on multiple occasions and defeated a powerful occupier through courage, commitment and the solid support of the Palestinian people. He is like his over 5,000 sisters and brothers remaining in Israeli jails, a prisoner of freedom who yearns and struggles unceasingly for justice – and reminds us all of the urgency of struggling to free every Palestinian prisoner held behind bars at the hands of Israeli settler colonialism.
Ahmad Sa’adat, Palestinian leader, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and political prisoner held in Israeli jails, has been transferred to Nafha prison; he has been transferred repeatedly during his imprisonment, the last time to Gilboa prison in early May.
In protest of his transfer, Palestinian prisoners at Gilboa prison rejected their meals for a day. In addition, on 23 June, an Israeli court in Nazareth is considering the petition filed on Sa’adat’s behalf, demanding the exclusion or disclosure of so-called “secret evidence” that has been used to ban Sa’adat from family visits with his wife and children.
Sa’adat announced that he is waiting 45 days for the court’s ruling and disclosure of the secret materials, stating that if this does not happen, Sa’adat will petition the Supreme Court and launch a hunger strike demanding an end to the denial of family visits. Sa’adat has been denied family visits by Israeli military order since 14 September 2014.
